New Anti-Conversion Law Raising Eyebrows

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The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government passed an executive order against forced religious conversions.

The Order

The state government cabinet approved a decree (which will become a law after the state governor’s approval) to check ‘unlawful’ religious conversions and interfaith marriages with the sole intention of changing the other person’s religion. Here are the key highlights:

• Mass conversions done forcibly or through cheating would result in a jail term of 3–10 years and a minimum fine of INR 50,000 (USD 675).
• Marriage will be declared null if the primary reason was to change the girl’s religion. The accused’s punishment would be a jail term up to 10 years and a fine up to INR 25,000 (USD 340).
• If someone wants to convert after marriage willfully, they’d need to submit an application to the district magistrate two months in advance. The conversion can take place if the application is accepted.
• Similarly, if someone wants to marry after converting to another religion, they will need to seek approval from the district magistrate two months before the marriage.

The Reason

Last month, the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that the government would bring in a law to end “love jihad.” Love jihad is an Islamaphobic conspiracy theory that alleges that Muslim men use trickery, false expression of love, and forced marriage to convert women from other religions.

However, it is not defined legally anywhere. Back in February, the Centre told the parliament that this term is not defined under any law, and no case of this nature was filed by any central agencies. Also, very little data exists to determine how many inter-faith marriages took place in the country as it is not tracked as part of the census.

Recent Investigation

One of the narratives that was going around was that love jihad is an organized racket and that foreign organizations are funding this activity in India.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up in September to look into this in UP. They probed 14 incidents, out of which 11 were found to be criminal. However, the team ruled out any organized conspiracy angle or any outside funding in any of these cases.

What’s Next

Haryana and Madhya Pradesh are looking to follow the footsteps of the UP government and enact similar laws in their respective states.